So lately I've been thinking of picking-up an Epiphone Black Beauty and making it a versatile/utility guitar. I have settled upon the BB as I hav become slightly obsessed with 3-pickup guitars and this seems like a good starting point. I do not have any humbucker/les paul style guitars at the moment so this would really fill in a lot of gaps for me.
The idea behind this post is to collect as many mods as possible that are available to me regarding this guitar. Wiring, pickups, trem systems, MIDI, etc, etc. I am not concerned with resale value so please that out of any considerations you might have.
So far I have thought about the following options...
White/creme pickup rings/switch ring
lose the pickguard
3 vol/1 master tone for more switching options
Jimmy Page-style pickup toggles (one for each)
push/pull for coil-tap and/or series/parallel
bare knuckle in bridge, tv jones in middle, p90 in neck
bigsby or kahler/floyd rose/stetsbar
MIDI pickup (GK or Fishman Triple Play)
Varitone
Hipshot guitar xpander
kaos pad touchpad
I'm a trem guy. I love having a good one.
the floyd is the best once you get used to setting them up. There is a earning curve there. Understanding how it works and how to set it up is key. that said, I dont think a traditionally constructed LP design is a good candidate for a floyd. I built an axcess clone and when I did that a lessened the angle that the neck has coming off the body to make it so the floyd would not have to sit high off the guitars body to work.
A bigsby is well suited for a LP, but will not leave as much room for the touchpad. You might be able to squeeze it in there if you use a B5. I have found that bigsby's are the least usable type of trem in that they dont have as much range that you can raise or lower pitch with.
the page thing is cool. I did it once and then found that I ended up not using most of the options it gives you. Now I set up guitars to do just the things I want them to and not more. Less complex is better I have found.
I have no experiance with some of the other things you listed so I won't comment.
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If you can live without the Kaospad or if there is enough room for both, you could go with an offset style tremolo and a pickup behind the bridge. You'd have to check if such a tremolo will work on a Les Paul, with the curved top and all. I'd prefer it over a built in Kaospad if I had to choose
Although the goal was to try to list as many possibilities as could be thought of I will say, after reading/thinking about it, I've decided on a few specific options for the build...
- Gibson Dirty Fingers (bridge), Lollar Charlie Christain (middle), Gibson '57 Classic (neck)
- push/pull for coil tap (bridge/neck), and series/parallel (1 for bridge/neck, 1 for middle)
- 3 vol/1 tone
- Hipshot xtender (E - D)
The other options I'm still debating on. If I put a Bigsby or Floyd on there, I won't be able to mount a MIDI pick-up (not easily anyways). Then again, if I won't be using a MIDI pick-up that often, I'd rather have a Floyd (for tuning stability).
Adding a floyd rose to a hardtail guitar is going to be, well, like, a bunch of routing.
I dunno if it would be worth it, honestly.
I'd say get the guitar, put the pickups in, mess with the wiring.
But unless you're pretty comfortable with woodworking, I'd say it's probably best to just leave the bridge how it is.
But, like. That's just my suggestion.
I just feel like it'd be way too much work and may end up gimping your guitar, yaknow?
I have a black beauty with a Fernandez sustainer that I would part for real cheap. It's not in great condition but it sounds like your doing an overhaul on it
